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October 4, 2015
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Marathon 54, State #47
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Portland, Maine
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4:33:42
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http://mainemarathon.com/
So this story picks up where NH’s story ends.
In the car, driving from NH where I had just
finish New Hampshire’s marathon and heading to Portland, ME to the expo for
my Maine Marathon. The drive from Bristol to Portland is about 100 miles and all state routes (i.e. mostly back roads) which took about two hours.
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| Main Marathon Expo |
The expo for Maine Marathon is in a building called the James V. Sullivan Recreation and Fitness Complex on the university campus adjacent
to downtown Portland.
Easy to find a
couple blocks off the highway.
I think we may have been the first that made
the drive from the finish to the expo. As
George and I walked through the doors sporting our orange race shirts from the
morning’s earlier marathon were instantly recognized. (apparently the race shirts from NH have similar graphics every year!)
The organizers said they always have a lot of runners that do both
races.
Unlike Saturday’s race, this was
a larger event where the number looked to be as high as 4,000 in all races. (vs.
100’s that morning!)
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| Packet Pickup |
While 4,000 runners were running
the combination of all of the races, based
on such a small vender participation at the
expo, the race had a strange feel of both a small race as well as later at the
start line the vibe of a larger race.
We were in and out of the expo in only a few minutes.
On our return to the parking lot another car
load of NH runners had just arrived and they looked to be hurting a little bit
more than George and
I.
Next was to plug in coordinates of the
hotel and go check in.
Our next two planned nights were at the Holiday Inn. Portland isn’t that large so to stay almost
anywhere in town would be convenient.
Just an exit up the road and we were checking into our hotel. Again breakfast included, which greatly
helps with our morning routine. Another
plus, is that where many times I have to check out in the morning because I
don’t usually spend Sunday night after a race, this time I had the luxury of
not being homeless after the marathon and could come back for a shower. (and nap)
George was itching for a post race beer, so after
discovering our hotel didn’t have a bar, we walked across the street to the
Marriott which was full service. George
got his beer (I had one as well) and it just happened the Buckeye’s were on TV
so we were able to watch the first half at the hotel bar. The food menu at the Marriott didn’t do
anything for us, so at half time we decided to drive a mile up the road to a
Macaroni Grill. We were able to bypass
the long line and find a seat at the bar and even convince the bartender to tune one
of the TV’s to my game!
Sunday morning the alarm goes off and still not feeling too
bad, given the fact just a day earlier I ran 26.2 miles.
The morning’s routine was like clockwork,
roll out of bed, throw on running clothes, and head downstairs for
breakfast.
Like New Hampshire, again a
tour bus of old folks were lined up at the breakfast buffet and getting ready
to board their bus.
I would learn the
following day that touring the coast and seeing the many lighthouses is a big
tourist activity in Maine.
For now that
would have to wait and it was on to business.
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| East Coast Sunrise Marathon Morning - View from hotel |
It was also cold again, in the low 40’s, still pretty chili for this California
boy.
The good thing about this marathon
is that there were two start times.
Slower
runners could start at 6:00 but the official start time was 7:45 the majority
of the field.
The start line was a few
blocks from the expo so we knew where we were heading, but unexpectedly there
was a huge traffic jam feeding into the parking area which delayed getting to
the start line.
By the time we parked
and walked to the start, we only had a few minutes till the start.
Picking the perfect clothing for race day is always a crap
shoot. Since the start time was over an
hour earlier than Saturday’s marathon, It was also a little cooler. I sweat a little more than usual with the
extra layer of clothes Saturday when I wore a long sleeve running shirt with a
light jacket, so for Sundays race I opted to go with same light jacket but with
a short sleeve shirt underneath. At the
start I even had a third layer, but by mile 5-6 was ready to shed that and then
felt pretty comfortable the rest of the day.
I did talk to one guy who was running his first marathon at the start
line and wished him well. I talked with
another guy that had run this marathon the last 5 years in a row. This was my 54th marathon and 47th
state, so between the 3 of us we had all kinds of different experiences, but
were all there for the same reason.
I brought a camera to snap a few pictures around the course,
but later discovered they didn’t come out very good. I
stopped a few times in the first couple miles and fumbled with digging the
camera out, getting my music to play more than one song in a row, and finally after
it was working just decided to keep it stowed the rest of the marathon. Unlike Saturday’s marathon, there were a
large number of runners. The half and
the relays all started at the same time (and place) as the marathon. The 13.1 race was pretty much an out and
back, so soon started seeing the leaders running towards the main pack on our
way away from the start/finish line.
The crowds did narrow out after the turn around, but unlike Saturday
there was no solitary isolation.
Especially with the walkers with a head start, there was always someone
to pass. Actually with the slow runners starting early it was a big confidence boost after running two days in a row as tired as I was I was still passing other runners!
I never know what to expect on race day when doing a crazy
thing like a “double”, but was pleased with my legs and body’s
performance. My Garmin watch has a
feature, not exactly sure the purpose, but whenever I finish a run, it suggests
a number of hours before my next work out, then the next time you workout about
a mile into the workout it beeps and flashes a message, “recovery good”. I supposed that means I rested the
appropriate amount of time before running again. This morning my message was “recovery fair”,
I guess a warning I’m running before I’ve fully recovered. I guess I could have figured that one out on
my own!
Looking back on the day, I never pushed myself, tried to
take in walk breaks every mile, and still I averaged just over 10 minute
miles.
What was interesting and makes
some sense, since I ran slower than Saturday, my average heart rate was also
lower at 141 bpm compared to 150 the day before.
I remember a year prior when I did the
double in CT & RI I suffered a little more on day two.
This year I felt pretty good from start to
finish.
Now that it’s done I’m pretty
happy I don’t think I’ll have to do this again!
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| Lookin' Good after about 52 miles of running in two days! |
The out and back course didn’t go exactly out and back but
eventually merged back to the same first mile of the course which was along the
lake.
Perfect place for a photo and
again my friend George who again ran the 13.1 race was there with his camera
and caught a great action shot!
Thanks
George!
The finish line had some great
snacks including some homemade pizzas from a local pizza chain.
Pizza is always good, but after 52.4 miles
in two days it never tasted better!
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| Maine Marathon 2015 Finisher! |
I could feel the two days toll of running on my body as I
walked back to the car and on the way back to the hotel we each got to share
about how our races turned out.
Next
stop a hot shower, a Red Bull, and a few hours of laying low in the hotel to
recoup and post some social media updates.
Later that afternoon our consensus was head to downtown Portland and check out “Old
Port”.
We found an old saloon called 3
Dollar Deweys Ale House and had some great grub including a victory
beverage.
Next was just to walk
around the area and stumble in and out of all the many stores including many
art or craft stores.
I was looking for
a souvenir for Parisa and ended up talking to one of the local store owners and
asked for suggestions of what to do with our next two days and walked away with
a list of four things he recommended as his favorite spots along the
coast.
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| Celebrating Double Marathon Weekend...running all done. |
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| Downtown Portland, ME |
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| Old Port ~ Downtown Portland, ME |
Last stop before heading back to the hotel was another
watering hold called the Liquid-Riot Bottling Company which was a hip microbrew
right near the waterfront.
We each
tried one of our favorites from their long list of homemade beers and made a
note to come back again next time in Portland.
The only thing to top the day off would be a hot tub but unfortunately
our hotel didn’t have one so it was back to get a good night’s sleep.
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| East Coast Sunset |
No need to rush out of bed Monday morning and we decided
logistically it would be best to just extend our hotel one extra night.
We were conveniently located so we could stay close
to the city and go up the coast north on Monday, then pack up things
and head down the coast south on Tuesday as we make our way back to the airport
in Boston.
First stop was a lighthouse close to downtown
and only a hop skip and a jump from our hotel called Portland Head Light.
Situated in a nice park with lots of hiking
trails, but for this boy simple a short walk and a few pictures for the scrap
book.
Again, another bus was dropping
off all the old folk tourists.
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| Portland Head Light - View 1 |
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| Portland Head Light - View 2 |
Next was to head north of town to Pemaquid Point
Lighthouse.
Interesting how Maine has
all these fingers into the Atlantic ocean, so driving up and down the coast is
not easy, it’s more like driving in an out of the coast.
Our afternoon was planned around getting to
hit a hot spot recommended for lunch called Red’s Eats.
We actually passed right by the roadside
stand on the main route #1 heading north.
Was actually expecting something bigger, but for sure hard to miss on
the corner and a for sure stop for my first ever lobster roll.
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| Stairs to Top of Pemaquid Point LIghthouse |
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| Pemaquid Point |
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| Pemaquid Point |
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| Pemaquid Point Lighhouse |
On to Pemaquid Point was a lovely drive, ironically located
in a town of Bristol, ME, the exact same name of the town of our Saturday
marathon in NH.
Arriving on property
there was a small fee of $2 per person but full access to museum and light
house.
It was terrific to be able to
climb the stairs to the top and see the light, but before climbing a guide gave
us a run down on the whole lighthouse history.
There are 61 lighthouses down the coast, each one had a different light
pattern, so ships could refer to their nautical maps and know where they were
along the coast.
The lighthouses are
very scientific in that their height and light design works in conjunction with
the circumference of the earth and the distance they want the light to be able
to shine.
Also on at this spot were
many artist painting pictures of the coast and the light house plus some great
rocks to hike on out near where the waves were breaking.
A short stop at an art shop and a gift shop
next door and we were heading back towards Red’s Eats.
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| Red's Eats...always a hour line for lobster rolls |
When we returned to Red’s Eats, located in a town called
Wiscasset, now lunch time and there was easily an hour line along the
sidewalk.
I jumped out of the car to
get a spot while George looked for parking.
By the time he joined me in line there were already 20 more people
behind us in line.
The couple next to
us came all the way from Georgia just to have lunch here.
Now I’m starting to feel the excitement of
my first lobster roll.
It wasn’t long
an one of the workers had samples of some fried shrimp, which I may add was
pretty tasty, and of course would need to be added to the lobster roll order!
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| Lagoon next to Red's Eats, fantastic color love this shot! |
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| Another great shot! |
We were getting closer and was excited to see
a couple in front of us actually bought lunch for perfect strangers in front of
them because he was a veteran.
How
thoughtful.
We placed our order and a
few minutes later heading to find an empty seat, yeah good luck with that!
We noticed some more tables down by the
waterfront so marched on down and sat next to the water.
What was real interesting is there were two
more lobster stands across the street and hardy a person in line.
Whatever we were recommended seemed like the
place to be.
I was surprised to find
that a lobster roll was cold, and just a bunch of meat on a hot dog bun.
Still, none-the-less, very tasty!
From lunch we carried on to our last stop of our afternoon
tour, a place called, Ocean Point near Boothbay Harbor.
It was
another lovely drive out one of the fingers into the Atlantic Ocean and a nice
perimeter drive around the coastline.
I
think a lot of the great coastline views are nicer at high tide and I think we
hit this stretch of our tour at low tide, so it was a little less spectacular
than our last two stops.
On the way
back to Hwy 1 our last stop recommended was a town called Booth Bay
Harbor.
We were hoping for another
lighthouse, but just found a little village filled with stores geared towards
all the coastal tourist.
We walked
around
town and checkout out a few
stores, but after two days of hard running we were soon ready to call it a day
and head back to Portland and relax a bit at the hotel.
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| Interesting...every family has a different design for Buoys so they can identify their lobster traps |
Our last night in town we decided to stay close to the hotel
and found a little place called the Bugaboo Creek Steak House. Our last night in town and low on energy
made for an early dinner and off to rest.
Our last day in Maine we had the privilege of driving down not only the
coastline of Maine, but also the 16 mile coastline of New Hampshire, and even
some of the northern coastline of Massachusetts. After packing up our bags and heading out
the door our first stop and last recommended stop was another lighthouse, this
one named Nubble Lighthouse. Again,
another tour bus was pulling in as we were departing.
Keeping with my theme for travel of “gulping”, instead of
hitting I-95 and heading back to Boston which I had just seen a little bit of a
year ago, we decided to hake a more scenic route of following Hwy 1 and Hwy 1A
all the way down the coast back to Massachusetts.
We got to take in some more of Maine’s
coastline and much of the 13 miles of New Hampshire’s Coastline including
Hampton Beach.
A quick lunch at a
roadside diner and then a drive around the scenic peninsula that lead out and
around an area of Rockport, MA.
From there it was time to try to beat Boston’s
rush hour and head back to the airport to return the car and head for home.
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| Nubble Lighthouse ~ Island Lighthouse |
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| Northern Massachusetts Coastline |
There was a lot to take in on this area I’ve never visited
before.
I guess one of the benefits of
running a marathon in every state is to actually spend a little time in each
state and explore what it has to offer.
I was blessed to afford the luxury of a couple extra days on this trip
and thankful for what I was able to experience along the way.
This trip completes my 46th & 47th state marathons, only Alaska, Wisconsin and Vermont to go! Until next time…happy trails!
| 1
| 8:55.3
| 8:55.3
| 8:55
| 1.00
| 0
| 3
| 8:55
| 8:55
| 8:36
| 138
| 144
|
| 2
| 11:20
| 20:15
| 9:43
| 1.00
| 10
| 3
| 11:20
| 9:43
| 8:11
| 133
| 148
|
| 3
| 9:05.9
| 29:21
| 9:06
| 1.00
| 49
| 30
| 9:06
| 9:06
| 8:23
| 145
| 151
|
| 4
| 9:05.1
| 38:26
| 9:05
| 1.00
| 16
| 23
| 9:05
| 9:05
| 8:49
| 146
| 152
|
| 5
| 9:40.2
| 48:06
| 9:41
| 1.00
| 20
| 13
| 9:40
| 9:41
| 7:32
| 144
| 149
|
| 6
| 10:38
| 58:44
| 10:35
| 1.00
| 59
| 30
| 10:38
| 10:35
| 8:47
| 139
| 153
|
| 7
| 9:35.4
| 1:08:20
| 9:35
| 1.00
| 59
| 46
| 9:35
| 9:35
| 8:57
| 143
| 153
|
| 8
| 10:12
| 1:18:31
| 10:10
| 1.00
| 43
| 0
| 10:12
| 10:10
| 7:35
| 140
| 147
|
| 9
| 9:58.4
| 1:28:30
| 9:58
| 1.00
| 7
| 23
| 9:58
| 9:58
| 7:13
| 141
| 146
|
| 10
| 10:14
| 1:38:44
| 10:15
| 1.00
| 66
| 10
| 10:14
| 10:15
| 7:05
| 140
| 150
|
| 11
| 9:35.9
| 1:48:20
| 9:35
| 1.00
| 16
| 118
| 9:36
| 9:35
| 7:26
| 134
| 144
|
| 12
| 10:29
| 1:58:49
| 10:29
| 1.00
| 62
| 23
| 10:29
| 10:29
| 7:50
| 137
| 145
|
| 13
| 9:58.2
| 2:08:47
| 10:00
| 1.00
| 23
| 82
| 9:58
| 10:00
| 8:33
| 137
| 148
|
| 14
| 10:59
| 2:19:46
| 10:32
| 1.00
| 49
| 16
| 10:59
| 10:32
| 7:02
| 139
| 148
|
| 15
| 11:17
| 2:31:03
| 10:59
| 1.00
| 46
| 23
| 11:17
| 10:59
| 8:14
| 137
| 148
|
| 16
| 10:02
| 2:41:05
| 10:03
| 1.00
| 39
| 62
| 10:02
| 10:03
| 8:16
| 144
| 153
|
| 17
| 11:33
| 2:52:38
| 11:29
| 1.00
| 118
| 7
| 11:32
| 11:29
| 8:33
| 141
| 154
|
| 18
| 10:27
| 3:03:05
| 10:28
| 1.00
| 0
| 66
| 10:27
| 10:28
| 8:14
| 141
| 147
|
| 19
| 10:29
| 3:13:34
| 10:28
| 1.00
| 30
| 3
| 10:29
| 10:28
| 8:26
| 145
| 149
|
| 20
| 10:26
| 3:23:59
| 10:25
| 1.00
| 0
| 43
| 10:25
| 10:25
| 8:52
| 142
| 148
|
| 21
| 11:03
| 3:35:02
| 10:55
| 1.00
| 49
| 62
| 11:03
| 10:55
| 9:27
| 139
| 149
|
| 22
| 10:57
| 3:45:59
| 10:57
| 1.00
| 26
| 56
| 10:57
| 10:57
| 8:57
| 140
| 150
|
| 23
| 10:41
| 3:56:40
| 10:26
| 1.00
| 10
| 16
| 10:41
| 10:26
| 9:25
| 145
| 153
|
| 24
| 10:48
| 4:07:28
| 10:48
| 1.00
| 46
| 36
| 10:48
| 10:48
| 7:30
| 146
| 155
|
| 25
| 10:23
| 4:17:51
| 10:22
| 1.00
| 26
| 33
| 10:23
| 10:22
| 8:41
| 148
| 155
|
| 26
| 10:06
| 4:27:57
| 10:06
| 1.00
| 3
| 7
| 10:06
| 10:06
| 8:49
| 150
| 156
|
| 27
| 5:51.3
| 4:33:48
| 5:51
| 0.60
| 0
| 0
| 9:46
| 9:46
| 8:33
| 151
| 159
|
| Summary | 4:33:48 | 4:33:48 | 4:30:56
| 26.60 | 873 | 833 | 10:18 | 10:11 | :02 | 141 | 159 |
